Jeanie Buss: Rising in a Male Driven Industry | Forward Progress

0:01Hey, it's Thursday, which means we're coming at you with a short feel-good story from a past guest. Hope you enjoyed the clip. This week, Jeannie Buss.

0:14How do you think Alana Kloss and Billie Jean King influenced you? Billie Jean King is a mentor to me. She's a friend. But I'll never forget the day being in my dad's office. And he turned on the TV and he goes, you know, I want you to watch this. And it was the Billie Jean King versus Bobby Riggs tennis match. And he said, this is going to change the world because it was the battle of the sexes. It was, you know, great theater and great promotion. And I was honored to meet Billie Jean King. She's like one of those people that makes you believe that anything is possible. What did Jane Fonda teach you about a handshake?

1:08Jane Fonda, I met her, you know, probably at like 14, 15 years old. And I was so in awe of her. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. And so, you know, she put out her hand for me to shake her hand. And I gave her a very weak handshake. And she pulled me aside. And she goes, I want you to remember this, that when you meet somebody, you make sure they remember you and you give them a handshake, a strong handshake, look them in the eye. And that was great advice. I still do it to this day. So I think you're in the room with like eight-ish people at some meeting. There's a heated discussion, a man cusses, and what does he say to you and how do you respond?

1:58So it was a heated negotiation. We were around a conference table. And, you know, I was getting bullied in a way that is oftentimes happens to a woman, meaning the guy, you know, used some four-letter words. And when he did, he turned to me specifically and say, you know, no offense. You know, pardon my language. And it was literally the like tap on the head little girl, you know, fragile. You know, I'm drawing attention to the fact you're the only woman in the room. And so I said, look, you know, if you're going to apologize to me, you apologize to everybody in this room. Like, in other words, you're not going to isolate me and make me feel less than anybody in this room.

2:57I'm an equal and I belong here. And, you know, I've heard other women have the same kind of circumstance. It's really difficult to, you know, be the only woman in the room. And, you know, that was like 25 years ago. And now, you know, I'm not the only woman in the room. I don't stand out. And it isn't something that people use against me like they did so many years ago. because I was unusual or just kind of a prop or whatever. I belonged in the room, and they tried to take that away from me. And you felt like people thought at the time you could be a prop or something like that? Like, it could be because I was the boss's daughter, you know, that I was a woman.

3:55You know, whatever it was that they were just going to be like, eh, you know, she'll get bored. She'll leave. She won't like it. You know, we'll just, like, come at her hard, see what she's made of. And that's why you have to believe that you deserve your seat at the table. What was the situation where an NBA owner grabbed your butt and what happened there? It's about the bullying and about the intimidation. And so as we were waiting, taking a break from the meeting, and everybody's in line for the buffet for lunch during the lunch break, somebody grabs my ass. And I turn around and I was so shocked.

4:41But it was like, you know, again, if if I didn't have the confidence that my dad put in me, that was a moment where I wanted to shrink and to be nothing that I would have, you know, gotten sick and said, I got to go. do I really belong here? You know, I'm just really, you know, you know, not one of the group. Like, you know, I'm being singled out and made me really self-conscious. So what did you end up doing? I just gave him a dirty look, like back off. Yeah. And I stayed in the room and I realized that I might not be able to gain the respect of the existing ownership groups, but everybody that came after me, I could help them in the room because they'd be new.

5:41They'd be the new person. So the next new person was Mark Cuban. And I made sure that, you know, from day one, I put my hand out to him and said, like, hey, if I can help you understand any of this stuff, if there's any questions, like, here's my number, like, call me, you know, and I'll help you and I'll support you. Thanks for listening. We'll be back next week and every week sharing long form interviews on Mondays and shorter uplifting stories on Thursdays and then trending clips on Fridays. We'd love to hear from you with ratings and reviews. Do you prefer the longer podcast episodes or our shorter ones?

6:22I'm excited to get your take. Thanks again.